Monster-In-Law
by Belle1228
Summary: Carlos and Stephanie are getting married in an A/U, will Carlos' mother meddling bring them closer together or tear them apart?
1. We're living together now

Chapter 1

My name is Stephanie Plum, soon to be Manoso. My fiancée and I have been dating for close to a year, but I known him for five years. He was married when we first met to a woman named Rachael, they were more roommates with benefits than an actual married couple. To hear Carlos tell the story Rachael was starting to realize he was getting close to cutting the cord on the marriage and started forgetting to take her pills. Next thing he knows she is announcing that she is pregnant. Rachael is the most self centered, selfish person to ever walk the face of the earth. If one person should not be a mother it would be this woman. About six months after Julie was born Carlos and I went out to dinner and he confided in me that he had hoped Julie would change their relationship and help Racheal to grow up, but it didn't and he was leaving her. He wanted not only a better life for himself but he knew deep down in his heart that Julie deserved better than what would happen if they stayed together just for her sake. He told me that same night the he loved me and had loved me for five years, and once everything had settled down he hoped I would give him a chance to date me.

To be honest in the five years I had known Carlos he had always come across as a pompous jackass, but Julie really seemed to soften him around his edges. I wasn't completely opposed to the idea, but he need to get his ducks in order first. I would not be someones mistress.

In the months to follow Carlos officially filed for divorce and custody of Julie. Momma Manoso was not happy about this situation at all. She thought their problems could easily be fixed and even went to the point of asking if the only reason he was leaving Rachael was because I was pregnant. As much as Carlos tried explaining their problems they kept falling on deaf ears. Rachael went to Momma Manoso and said that she believed a lot of their problems stemmed from working and not being able to keep the house clean so Momma Manoso went and spent two solid days cleaning their house and doing laundry trying to get Carlos to move back in.

After the divorce was finalized Carlos asked me to marry him. His Dad, Manuel, was thrilled saying he never really cared for Rachael and felt that I would be able to give him the family life he deserved. Momma Manoso, or Maria as I call her because I can't bring myself to call her Momma Manoso said "Well we figured it was coming, lets hope this one last longer".

This brings us to present day. I am rushing home from work to the house that Carlos and I bought together. We have three months before the wedding and just moved everything into the house over the weekend. Carlos calls me at work and tells me his parents are bringing Julie home and that they would be staying for dinner. I had a mild panic attack over the phone but said that would be fine (I would explain to him the whole thing about giving notice when guest are coming to the house later). I got off work and went straight home to cook dinner and even baked a cake for dessert.

Dinner went off without a hitch. I was so happy to see Julie and she had started calling me Stephie since Stephanie is a mouth full for a one year old. Maria had sent a suitcase home with Julie that has some clothing in it, and as I got to the bottom of the suitcase I found little meals for children. I yelled at Carlos to come here for a minute and asked him if he had sent these to his parents before we started moving and he said no, but he would call his Mom and see what was going on.

"Momma, why did you sent food in Julie's suitcase?" I heard Carlos ask.

"Momma I assure you that went Stephanie went grocery shopping she bought food for Julie, you do not need to send food. She is not going to let your granddaughter starve." He paused for a second, "Yes I understand you think you were trying to be helpful but it's very insulting and you really should apologize to Stephanie next time you talk to her."

Finally I saw Carlos just hang up his phone, never said goodbye or anything else.

I came up behind Carlos and put my arms around his waist and laid my head on his muscular back and started feeling the tension release from his body.

"You wanna talk about that one?" I asked.

"Not really, Momma is crazy. She didn't think you'd buy food for Julie since you had never been a mother so she wanted to make sure Julie had food here." He said.

"SHE WHAT?!" I screamed.

I was beyond words at that point. I started doing my imitation of a fish not even really being able to form full words let alone sentences in my head. How was I going to be a part of his family when my soon to be mother in law doesn't even think that I will feed her granddaughter?

*****Not many stories have Carlos' mom as being mean. What do you think? This is actually based on a true story that happened when my husband and I first got married ****


	2. Wedding Shower

Chapter 2

One month later

Today was the day of my wedding shower. Honestly I could do without this whole fiasco, but my Mom and Mary Lou were adamant that I needed one, so here I sit at my house waiting for everyone to show up. Carlos went to his parents saying that he and his Dad were going to take Julie out to the park and have fun.

About an hour later my Mom and Grandma Mazur walk in the door and begin setting up the food for the party. Every time I go near my kitchen I am told to go sit down, so finally I give up and make my way upstairs to our office to surf the internet. I stay up there for another hour until I finally hear people start to arrive. As I make my way downstairs I run into Maria and she's got two women about her age with her who I know that I did not invite to the shower.

"Well Stephanie, it's nice of you to finally come down here with the rest of us, after all this whole party is for you. These are Rosa, Lola, and Delia and they have known Carlos all of their lives, they are all so please that you invited them to the shower." She says.

"Welcome to our house, please excuse me while I go check on my Mom in the kitchen," I say making my exit as quickly as possible.

"Mom, next time I say I don't want something please don't do it. I can just feel that this whole day is going to blow up. It's simmering underneath the surface already." I say as I snag a chip off the table.

"Normally I wouldn't agree with you, but I don't think I've heard one nice word come out of Maria's mouth since I've been here. Just smile and we'll make it through this." Mom says.

"Well if she gets to be too much of a horses ass I've got my gun in my purse, I'll just shoot her." Grandma says with a laugh.

"There will be NO shooting! Even if I was allowing shooting it would be ME who gets to shoot her not you." I say as I hug my grandma.

Thirty minutes later I am shoved into a chair so we can begin the opening of the presents. As I grab the first one I start to tear the bow and my Mom yells at me.

"Don't tear the bow! For each bow you keep intact it means that you'll have a child. I love Julie to pieces but I would love for you and Carlos to have more children."

"Yeah I'd like to have more grandchildren too," says Maria. "Just as long as you pick a different name than the ones you and Carlos were talking about the other night."

At that point everyone in the room is staring at me thinking I am pregnant. I quickly tell everyone I am not pregnant and I would let everyone know if and when that actually happened.

"Stephanie," Mom says. "What name did you like?"

"I've always been fond of the name Jessie for a girl and Carlos likes it as well." I begin to say before Maria cuts me off.

"I refuse to call one of my grandchildren Jessie, I hate that name." Maria says, "I guess I'll just call her by her full name Jessica if you do have a girl."

"I don't think it's your place to choose their child's name, " says Grandma, "I mean if everyone got to choose names to call people I bet a lot of people would just refer to you as bitch and not Maria."

The devil on my shoulder wants to cheer for Grandma's outburst but I know better than to do this right now. I finally tell everyone to please drop it for right now, this is a wedding shower not a baby shower and I am not pregnant in any way, shape, or form. That calmed everyone for about twenty minutes until I got to Maria's present. She got me a really nice trifle bowl. Carlos' favorite dessert is a low fat trifle that his mother makes, and it really takes a lot for him to eat dessert.

"Thank you Maria, does this mean you're going to give me the recipe for the trifle that Carlos loves?" I ask.

"No, I have to keep something to myself to make sure that my son actually comes and visits me. It seems like I see him less and less with every passing day." Maria says.

The rest of the party went by pretty fast. I went through the presents and start writing thank you notes after everyone left. I honestly don't know why people take the time to go to stores and register, I mean I didn't get a single thing off our registry. I've got to figure out a way to get through to Maria, I don't understand why she dislikes me so much but this has got to stop.


	3. Hospital Visit

Chapter 3

One month until the wedding

With Carlos getting Rangeman up and running he has had to pull double duty doing both field work and desk work. I do what I can in my free time after my job is over, but to be honest we need both incomes as of right now, as much as I wish there was more that I could do to take some of the burden off of him. Even though the custody agreement with Rachael states that she gets Julie for two weeks out of the month every time she is supposed to have Julie she either just doesn't pick her up or end up dropping her off at Maria's house (Okay come on, how weird is that….my future MIL has more of a relationship with my husband's ex than I do).

Carlos and I have had may discussions about how Maria treats me and it seems like everyone in the family just kind of shrugs it off as "well that's how she is". I call complete bullshit to that, but no one wants to confront her because no wants to hear her relentless nagging and bitching. The times that Carlos has taken my side on disagreements you would have thought it was WWIII. I actually envy the fact that Carlos' sister and kids live 8 hours away and only have to put up with this a few times a year.

Tonight Rangeman had a takedown that was going down around midnight. I had been up since 5am with Julie and was overly relieved that my Mom offered to keep Julie tonight so I could get some sleep. I decided to curl up on the couch and watch a movie and if I feel asleep I'd go upstairs when Carlos made it home. Around 1am my cell phone started ringing, it was Bobby.

"Lo" I said sleeply

"Steph it's Bobby. Carlos is in the hospital. The skip got a lucky swipe at him and cut his arm pretty bad. He's getting stitches now. I'm sending Lester over to get you now. He called Tia Maria and Tio Manual to tell them what was going on. They said they were about an hour out and would take Julie back with them tonight."

"Okay, let me go change so I can be ready when Lester shows up. Take care of him Bobby." With that I hung up and went to go change into a sweatshirt and some track pants.

Once we made it to the hospital they were getting ready to stitch him up. Maria and Manual arrived at the hospital around the same time we did. As we made our way to the group of guys sitting in the waiting room the doctor came out and walked right up to me.

"Mrs. Manoso?" he asked me.

"No, I'm Mrs. Manoso. Carlos' mother. This is his fiancée Stephanie Plum." Maria said before I could open my mouth.

"I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. Ms. Plum, Carlos will be released into your care in about 20 minutes. We were able to stitch him up and gave him some antibiotics to make sure he doesn't get an infection. Once he's ready to be released we'll come get you." The doctor turned around and walked off leaving me there with Maria.

"Where is Julie? You didn't leave her at home did you Stephanie?" Maria asked.

"No I didn't leave her at home, she is staying the night with my parents. She was already there prior to receiving this call and I didn't feel that it was necessary to wake her up at 1:30 in the morning and drag her to the hospital." I said.

"Well, I will stop by your parents house and get her on our way home. We'll bring Julie back whenever Carlos is back to 100%. If Carlos cannot take care of Julie then she should really be with family."

"You will not wake my parents up to get Julie, she is perfectly fine and I will pick her up in the morning. This is our time with Julie and it's our responsibility to take care of her." I said as Tank came up with a cup of coffee and Lester took Maria off to speak with her.

"Don't mind my wife, she is so use to everyone relying on her that she hates the fact that you take charge of the situations and call her out on her shit. Rachael folds to her every request." Manual said as he sat down beside me and put his arm around me.

I just nodded and sat here sipping my coffee for the next few minutes until Maria returned. I decided I was just going to try to ignore her until they were ready to get Carlos out of here. I looked around and saw Carlos' who staff was here waiting on him. All 5 guys were here out of concern for their boss who they all consider their friend as well. It was really touching

"You know Carlos is lucky to have people who love him," I said out loud not really speaking to anyone in particular.

"He is very lucky Stephanie. We love him very much and we really want to love you too." Maria said.

Before I could respond the doctor came and said that Carlos had been released and that we could take him home. Lester went and got the vehicle that had driven me in and we loaded Carlos into the car. I was quite the whole way home, I needed to address these concerns with Carlos about his Mom but I didn't know how. Right now wasn't the right time, but it needed to be done soon.


	4. Ranger's POV

**We're going to step back in time to Ranger's childhood and take a better look at his family to try to figure out why Maria is the way she is. This one is going to have a lot of mini stories about his side of the family and some of the other things Maria has said/done over the years to all of the members of the family**

-Not mine, just playing…the only thing that is mine sadly is the plot.

Chapter 4

Listening to Steph tell me about her latest "issue" with Mama just takes me back to my childhood. I wasn't a perfect angel when I was a teenager, but I honestly don't think that Mama helped with that situation. If you ever wanted to describe my Mom all you have to think about is the Mother character on Everybody Love Raymond. She disguises her complaints as complements and everyone in the family just says "That's just how Mama is". Steph says that we have given her free rein to say what she wants without consequences by blowing off the comments for so many years, and I guess she's right about that.

I have one sister, Ceclia, who has two kids. She lives down in Florida and every time she comes to visit she ends up cutting her trip short. Staying with my parents is okay for her and her husband, but after about 4 days Mom and Ceclia are butting heads. She has stayed with me on a few occasions, but now since the kids are older Mama really pushes for them to stay with her so she can hover over, I mean spend time with the grandkids.

My Dad loves his kids, but I honestly think after so many years he just ignores Mama. I've heard him say more than once "If I can put up with my wife's nagging you don't phase me". I think more now since the kids are grown he stays out of the line of fire just for a peaceful existence at home. Not that I blame him, if I was retired and had to be around someone 24/7 I would do a little more to appease them. Dad was in the reserves when he was younger and picked up bad habits like drinking and smoking. He quit drinking shortly after Ceclia was born but has always fought with smoking. Mama hates smoking so instead of dealing with her he just hides out in his garage when he's smoking. He won't smoke around her and swears he's quit, I know better. She does too, it's not like she can't smell it. About a month ago Mama went to get something out of Dad's car and saw a new carton of cigarettes, she took them and tore each one up and left them all on the passenger side of the car. Never said one word to him about the situation, and he didn't confront her because he didn't want to have the "I thought you had quit smoking" argument with her. He showed up at our house pissed as hell, not that I blame him. It took all Babe had not to laugh at the situation. She said it was so juvenile that she felt like she was listening to something a child had done to get back at him and not his wife who was suppose to be caring about his well being.

Growing up Mama did a lot of the discipline in the house, unless it was something major. I have vivid memories of arguments with Mom in my teen years. The woman could not be quiet long enough to listen to someone else. Babe thinks her Mom and the "Why me?" is bad, let me tell you Maria Manoso could put her to shame. When I was 14 years old we got into a huge blow out before Dad got home, I was getting so mad that I was shaking. I finally told her that I was going to walk around the block to calm down then I'd come back and talk to her. All I wanted was 5 minutes to myself so I wouldn't say or do something stupid. Mama couldn't let it go, I headed out the door and started walking down the side street by the house, next thing I know Mama's car is driving right along side me with the window down and her yelling at me "You need to come back home and calm down so we can finish talking". She drove along side me until I made it home, yelling at me the whole time from the car window.

As my teen years went on I started to rebel more and more. Mama finally decided it was a psychological issue and took me to a psychiatrist. I went through some initial tests and answers all the doctors questions, after we finished the doctor went to Mama and said he wanted to run test on her to see if she could be a cause of some of these issues. Needless to say, we left the psychiatrist office without her being tested and she never brought the issue up again.

As I've gotten older I have blocked my parents out more and more from my life, but I felt like when Julie was born that I owed it to her to have a good relationship with her grandparents. Rachel hated Mama, and the feeling was mutual until we got divorced. Now Mama caters to Rachel's every whim because she allows her to keep Julie during her court appointed visitation. She enables Rachel to be a horrible mother to Julie and does it so she can spend more time with her.

When Babe and I got together I knew there would be issues between the two. Babe doesn't know when to stop and let things go, and doesn't have a brain to mouth filter. She tends to tell Mama exactly what she's thinking, which normally snowballs into a huge fight. I have taken up for Steph to Mama numerous times, but it falls on deaf ears. I love my Mama, but damn sometimes enough is enough! At this point the only thing I can hope for is for them to be able to coexist around one another without killing each other.

**The next chapter is the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, and wedding. Just a prewarning, Maria plans and pays for the rehearsal dinner J**


End file.
